corn corn corn....and other adventures

Yesterday started out with a trip to the local government run clinic that Tita had been working at. When we drove to drop her off for another day of volunteering I thought it would be good to offer the group a chance to take a tour and see what health care really looks like for the people of Malawi. The group was told this wouldn't be a "fun" trip, but should be eye opening. When we arrived everyone was shocked at the number of people waiting in line to be seen. This clinic is mostly for pre-natal and post-natal visits and also labor and delivery. There is a walk in clinic for others there also. The lines were long and it was difficult to navagate up to the door, but we were able to find a nurse kind enough to give our group a quick tour. Ellen and I waited outside since we had seen the clinic before and we wanted the group to be as small as possible becuase it was so busy. While waiting outside Ellen and I got to see a line of Mothers with their babies waiting to get them weighed. The would wrap the baby in cloth and then hang them up on a scale that hung from a tree in the courtyard. It was really interesting to watch and before long the women were asking us to take their pictures with their babies on the scales.
The group came out of the clinic and I could see their somber faces and right away knew that seeing what they had seen on the inside of the clinic had surely made an impact. Later in the day a few volunteers talked about how they felt about what they had experienced. One volunteer (Patrick) told Ellen "Being there and seeing that clinic makes me want to fulfill my dream of being a doctor even more"...thats what its all about. Sometimes putting yourself in an uncomfortable position is the best way to plant a seed of passion in your heart that will bring you back to help here and other places.
We were ready to head to Mtendere and get started on our work there. We had wood that needed to be bought so that some of our group could get started building the 8 beds that were needed. Some of us needed to head to the market to purchase some of the household items the house Mothers had requested. Some of us were going to spend time shucking corn, and others of us needed to do a double check on the mattress situation so that we would be ready for the 32 remaining mattresses that were to be delivered "sometime" that day.
I took Susan and Katie to the market with me and we went on our hunt to find 150 plates, 150 cups, 18 mops and buckets and some cleaning solution. That was an adventure! The market became a buzz when they all figured out the amount of things we needed to buy. We had shop keepers running from shop to shop in order to fill our large order. It took about 2 hours, but in the end we had collected what we needed. We wanted to make sure we bought plates and cups that were "good" quality and since there were 2 kinds of plastic I picked up a plate in order to test its strength. SNAP the plate broke right in 2...the three of us gasped and the shop keepers eyes were wide as saucers. I was quick to pull money from my bag and pay for the boken plate. He tried to give me change and I just told him to keep it. In the end he was laughing and so were the three of us. We had figured out which plastic was stronger so we went on with our buying.
Back at Mtendere......(Ellen's turn)....
As Erin had said, we split into teams and tried to get much accomplished. Some of us walked around the village and put bed covers on beds where children are wetting the bed. The house mothers were so greatful for this small luxury, that every single house I went into the house mother wrapped me up in a big hug. This did not take long because Patrick, Andrew, Linda, and I had a system going and were quite efficient. After this, we checked in with Larry, Jan, and Chelsea who were bringing wood down to the village. This was a hard and tedious job and soon the teenage boys were also helping. The other job was shucking corn because they go through 8 fifty pound sacks of shucked corn in a week! Needless to say, this is a neverending job. So we sit outside of a house and shuck. Many of us had already tried our hand at this the day before and had sore thumbs and hands but we did everything we could to continue working on this small project because we knew how important it was. The neat thing about sitting out in the open village is that a number of children will wander over to us and begin helping. We get to know them and have great conversation as well! After the corn has been shucked, the cobs go into the kitchen and they use them in the fire. When I took a load of the cobs in, I saw that there was much chopping to be done. The kitchen is a very tough place to work because there is not any ventilation and they cook over an open fire (Yes... they build a fire INSIDE the building.) I went back to the corn group and asked if anyone would like to go work in the kitchen. Jan and Linda quickly jumped at the opportunity to do something different as we had been sitting baking in the sun for a good hour at that point. After no more that an hour, they both emerged from the kitchen blinking heavily and coughing a bit because it had gotten so smoky in the kitchen. Like I said before, it is a very tough job and the men who work in there 5 days a week are amazing. Before lunch, the boys and Larry had finally transported all the wood down the hill. We saw this as a good break and decided to take it.
As we were digging into lunch, Erin and her team came back with all of the supplies. We decided we should probably label the buckets and the mops for the house mothers so that there was no confusion. Andrew, Linda, Jan, and Patrick took on this task. Andrew was painting numbers on everything while the other 3 were busy counting out plates and cups to hand out. After the paint had dried, Andrew began running all over the village handing out all the new goodies. The trail of children behind him was funny because the children knew what we had but they also wanted to be a part of their own house mother's excitement when they saw their gifts. While all this was going on, we were still shucking corn....................
At lunch time Erin had to leave to go to the city and run an errand with Chelsea. We were to meet her back at the hotel after 4 o'clock. At four o'clock, I loaded everyone in the van and thought we were leaving. The driver turned the car on and then the mattresses came around the corner. We all jumped out of the car and handed them out to the remaining children. They knew the process from the day earlier so needless to say, this went very quickly. Everyone was so excited to finally have their beds and we left eager to see how they were going to sleep.
Chelsea and I were at the hotel waiting for the group when they got back. We all got cleaned up and headed out for dinner. It was a great dinner and we have all started to see that we all get along really well and have a lot of laughs and chats over our meals. Ellen and I decided that after dinner we would meet in Jans room and do a quick 1 hour "team building" exercise. A few volunteers joked about what would happen if they skiped out, but in the end everyone was up for it. It turned out to be a great opportunity to get to know a little more about each other and hear some personal stories about each of our lives. There were many more laughs and even a few tears.
I am starting to get a little sad knowing that this trip is on its downhill slide. We have accomplished so much and had such a great time and even though I know there are more days ahead and more adventures I do start to think about life back home and being there without the group. From Malawi thinking of getting back into the swing of things in the USA seems difficult. All of us will do it just fine, but from here it gives you a bit of a lump in your throat.
Off to another day of work at Mtendere!!!